never did finish a write up for last years Supersonic festival in Birmingham and with this years, the 10th anniversary/birthday no less, just a few weeks away I should at least put up some photos from the 2011 weekend.

For the record high points for me* were the double bill performance of Pharaoh Overlord/Circle over two nights and seeing (and meeting) Mike Watt on the Friday night who was everything you’d want Mike Watt to be.

I will miss our ‘time out’ for a pint in the The Old Wharf this year though, even if the writing was clearly on the wall there last year its a shame to see it gone. Changes this year to our plans? Well I’m thiking of going vegetarian for our pre festival curry as, while I enjoyed the food there iteself the meat was… well… And of course a post festival pint of Guinness in The Kerryman is a must, was nice to see a couple more festival goers wander into the early hours madness there last year as to me, like any great festival, Supersonic isn’t just about the music*** and the art its about the environment around too.

*I should also add a big thank you to the volunteers and the bar staff who I believe were also all or mostly volunteers last year, it made for a great friendly environment and watching a young lady shocked at the bargain end of night £1 a pint real ale sell off** impulse buy nine pints that she didn’t then know what to do with was quite priceless.

**Me and my drinking colleague also found a packet of monster munch on the bar at this point. We left it along for the best part of half and hour but that was as long as we could wait. If this was your packet of Monster Munch please allow me to apologise here and now.

ast weekend was spent in Bristol. A weekend with a mate of mine who normally comes to the winter ATP festival. We’ve found over the last few years we’ve enjoyed ATP less, or more that the experience has changed. While travel to Mineheads Butlins is much easier and quicker for myself, it also means the whole weekend is to be spent in a place with all the atmosphere of a motorway services. The accommodation might be a bit better but the venues are also much, much bigger and the price has crept up and up too. We’ve probably spent more time on the last two visits drinking and catching up in Minehead and Dunster than we have watching the bands. Its kind of a shame as its a great line up this year. Anyway, we figured we’d just have a cheap weekend away, catch some music and have a few beers somewhere else… and thats just what we did.

We landed a decently priced room at the Radisson Blu Bristol via lowcostholidays.com* which turned out to be pretty nice. Great views of the city, friendly staff and a complimentary soft drink on arrival. Win all round. Only bad points were the two lifts for the whole hotel, one of which had a mind of its own and a lack of choice on the radio stations via the TV – I’ve noticed Travellodge are the same, I do miss my 6Music/BBC7 when I’m away sometimes.

The weather was, well…

Pretty wet for the most part, but we had a good walk round. Was sorry to see all the record shops gone from Park Street now and also to find out that the Bag o Nails pub is closed these days. But theres still loads going on there, we had hoped to catch Sid Griffins Coal Porters band who were due to play but unfortunately the gig got called off. I had a list of things still that looked worth seeing, one night we saw The Crowns, enjoyable though the venue was pretty empty which lost it some atpmosphere and led to a shortish set I think. In fact the whole town seemed a lot less busy than I remembered things.

ight, I’ve got the CD player loaded up with the excellent Barolo CD, (First heard on the equally excellent Brumcast) and a couple of cds from the 3 for £20 Dirty Water Records Sale. I’ve got half a bottle of wine and a tube of Pringles. God damn it I’m going to finaly finish Supersonic Write up.

You could actually skip this review and head on over to Russ L’s [of Lots Of Things To See And Do In The West Midlands fame] and read his recently posted write up, as he both has a better memory and a more eloquent way with words than myself. Nonetheless, I’ve started so I’ll finish, this write up is brought to you by the photographs I took, the Supersonic Festival brochure and my very poor memory.

I met up with my regular supersonic attendee mate for a beer in The Victoria, a place that always has a decent selection of beers and it didn’t disappoint, one drink turned into four(-ish) and we headed off to check in to our accommodation for the weekend. This was to be the Arc Apartments, same as last year, as it was nice to have some extra space – living room/kitchen/tv/dvd area at not too much extra cost. Check in was confused by the fact I was apparently supposed to bring £200 cash with me to check in, well either that or a credit card. I had neither – there was nothing on any of the booking documents about it – so they agreed to charge my debit card it, this I apparently will get back at some point over the next couple of months, not yet mind, this being further worrying given the list of charges on the table for ‘breakages’ and also the list of charges should you check out more than five minutes late aannnd also given the painting in the room that had been glued back together, the smashed cooker top and the marks all over the walls. Not the most relaxing welcome though the check in staff and the place itself was nice enough.

Anyway, bags dumped we raced off to the Symphony Hall to catch Big Man Clayton who was doing a free show as a part of Birmingham Jazz’ rush hour jazz series of free gigs. It sounded good, and was nicely busy with an open bar – didn’t know what to expect, I’d been aware of the rush hour events for some time but didn’t know it was literally wander over and have a gander. Would definitely go again. That said while it was nice to get a taste of the music it would also have been good to see it in a ‘proper’ venue. After a quick hello to ace photographer and fellow Dirty Bristow contributer eight8all we headed off to the festival. Stopping on route at the recomended, to me, Manzils for some food. Previous Supersonics have always been heralded by some kind of event for us, the fabulously odd ‘school trip-like’ coach trip followed by the exelent Home Of Metal talk in 2008 and then last years free screening of Suspiria. While there were indeed some film screenings on it was nice to have a sit down and a decent meal before proceedings. Food was mostly good, my starter was a bit overdone(and my mate managed to order something which was a scotch egg deep fried with an omelette on the top – but then he always does find these bizarre combos so its no real surprise) the price was right and we both had no ill effects so it was a win overall.

We still had an hour or so to kill so headed for a quick pint in The Old Wharf. Ordering a Guinness we watched a very young band soundcheck. They were pretty good and while clearly heading in different directions genre wise they were a talented bunch. The Guinness had a rasberry tinge as its is oft served in rock venues, we cut it short and headed to the festival.

Okay, to be honest there was a tiny que when we arrived at the Custard Factory, so we headed over to the Spotted Dog for a quick half.

Anyway, we did eventually get to the festival, just in time for Necro Deathmort in the Old Library, which was the new stage for this years, it was a great improvement on both the old Medicine Bar room and the Kitchen as was. A nice space in general with its high ceilings and arches in fact it also had a bar, it would take us a day to figure out that this was in fact the ‘Capsule bar’ and as such, was cheaper, friendlier and had a better choice of beers(In fact by Sunday it was about the only bar with any draft beer left) than any of the others. I remember watching some of and enjoying what I saw of Fuckpig and then Drumcorps, in fact I remember realising it was Arron Spectre and all the great mixes I’d heard of his in the past – just about the time he was finished.

lot has been said on this in the past view days and if you do like the station and would like it to stay then this blog offers some great advice. There are also a wide range of eloquent, heartfelt letters being posted on the forfolkssake website.

Speaking personally its the only ‘music’ station I regularly listen to, well, okay, I do listen to Brumcast on Rhubarb Radio too but thats just the once a week, Several of the shows on 6 Music fulfill the two things I want from music radio. Presenters who are enthusiastic for what they do and music I’ve not heard before. Its been good to hear John Peels name mentioned so often within the pieces I’ve read about the station and I think it true that the station as a whole goes some way to replacing a lot of what he did for both new and old music.

When ever the license fee discussion comes up I think that both 6 Music and BBC 7 justify the cost to me. I can’t say much of the output on many of the other stations and certainly a large portion of the TV content does for me.

As I saw someone write on Twitter

John Peel would be spinning in his grave. Quite possibly at the wrong speed

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About

Chris (Myself) received a BA in illustration and graphic design from Liverpool John Moores University in July of 1997. Since then he’s been making his living as a painter, illustrator and also a website designer.

He (Me) is available for commissions, illustration work and other artwork related projects, so please feel free to use the contact page to get in touch.